. bobbi brown, who built a make-up empire out of nothing, got her first sale at bergdorfs by letting the buyers there think she had a deal with crosstown rival saks. she didn't have any such thing, really, but the hint of competition sealed the deal. its not bluffing, brown later rationalized to inc., it' thkingn youree well, whatever you call it: thinking on your feet, creative embellishment, fake it 'til you make it-you love it when its done by scrappy entrepreneurs. now compare that to what you read about faking it by big companies-just to pick one from the news, standard & poors. analysts there rated junk mortgage securities as if they were perfectly safe, even though, according to the government, they knew better. if that's true, then, s&p was just doing what bobbi brown did, right, stretching the truth to make a little money? well, no. theifference is aatter trust. people trusted s&p to give honest evaluations of securities. trust is what they sell. bobbi brown sells facial paint. we'd feel differently about bobbi brown if she sold makeup with toxic ingredients to bergdorfs, bu
